News Analysis: Pakistan may face more pressure from U.S.-Indian ties after Trump took office

Pakistan is expected to face more pressure from U.S.-Indian ties what some experts here said will be strengthened in the near future as Donald Trump was sworn in as the new U.S. president on Friday.

Ali Sarwar Naqvi, executive director at the Center for International Strategy Studies, told Xinhua that Indian lobby around the new U.S. president is somewhat influential on his thoughts and approaches since some Indian origin Americans are very close to Trump.

"I believe his policies will be tilted towards India that will raise serious concerns for Pakistan and the whole region," Naqvi said, adding that India is also expected to play the U.S. card to point to Pakistan on its anti-terrorism policies in the context that in his inaugural speech, Trump said that the United States will unite the civilized world against radical Islamic terrorism and eradicate it from the face of the Earth.

For decades, Pakistan and India have many outstanding issues needed to be resolved and the two bitter nuclear neighbors accuse each other of supporting militants in their territories. Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi even branded Pakistan as a "mothership of terrorism" and the remark prompted strong criticism within Pakistan.

For his viewpoint, Zafar Nawaz Jaspal, professor at Department of Politics and International Relations at the Quaid-i-Azam University, said that the United States will continue to support India as it views India as a great power.

The Indo-U.S. relations will be further strengthened in the coming days and it will be the main irritant between Pakistan and the United States, he said.

The same pressure from a would-be-strengthened relationship between the United States and India for Pakistan will also be expressed in the Afghan peace process.

Jaspal said that Trump will try to introduce India's role more in Afghanistan and ask Pakistan to bring more Taliban on the table.

Echoing Jaspal, Naqvi also said that the new U.S. administration, although will mainly focus on Middle East, will not ignore Afghanistan and Trump will pressurize Pakistan more to take action against militants, especially on the wishes of Afghanistan and India.

On Pakistan-U.S. relationship, the Pakistani government is willing to maintain a cordial work relationship with the United States, according to Jaspal. He said that besides the terrorism issue, the two countries could have work together in some other areas like economy.

"One can be more realistic while with Trump. There will be more pressure on Pakistan to comply with the American policy, but at the same time we cannot see any positive development between the countries. However, there will be some working relations, and the Pakistani government will try to maintain some kind of working or positive activities with the United States," he said.

Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif made a phone call with Trump after he elected as U.S. president last year and invited Trump to visit Islamabad, while Trump offered his role to resolve outstanding issues in the region.

Naqvi said that the Pakistani government wants better relations and cooperation with Trump and his team, but there is still nothing clear about his foreign policy since Trump is the first U.S. president without prior government or military experience.

"On Friday, Pakistan has appointed a senior diplomat Aizaz Ahmad Chaudhry as its new ambassador to Washington, the move shows Pakistan wants to start fresh and positive relations with Trump administration," said Naqvi, adding that "other than this move, we have seen nothing from the government here, I think they are following the policy of wait and see." Endit